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Inspirational Quotations on Reading

In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.—S. I. Hayakawa(1906–92) Canadian-born American Academic, Elected Rep, Politician

There are four kinds of readers. The first is like the hour-glass; and their reading being as the sand, it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second is like the sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. A third is like a jelly-bag, allowing all that is pure to pass away, and retaining only the refuse and dregs. And the fourth is like the slaves in the diamond mines of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, retain only pure gems.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.—Jane Austen(1775–1817) English Novelist

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.—W. Somerset Maugham(1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.—Francis Bacon(1561–1626) English Philosopher

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.—Groucho Marx(1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer

A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.—Albert Camus(1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author

There is a gentle, but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man’s character and conduct, which is not the least effectual because it works insensibly and because it is really the last thing he dreams of.—John Herschel(1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist

The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.—Nikki Giovanni(b.1943) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Activist, Author

Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.—Arnold Bennett(1867–1931) British Novelist

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.—Joseph Addison(1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician

Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.—William Faulkner(1897–1962) American Novelist

He picked something valuable out of everything he read.—Pliny the Elder(23–79 CE) Roman Scholar, Encyclopedist

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.—E. M. Forster(1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist

It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.—Victor Hugo(1802–85) French Novelist

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu(1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer

Books are masters who instruct us without rods or ferules, without words or anger, without bread or money. If you approach them, they are not asleep; if you seek them, they do not hide; if you blunder, they do not scold; if you are ignorant, they do not laugh at you.—Richard de Bury

A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down.—Edna St. Vincent Millay(1892–1950) American Poet, Playwright, Feminist

Books and proverbs receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.—William Temple

One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct.—Laurence Sterne(1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman

A vacuum of ideas affects people differently than a vacuum of air, otherwise readers of books would be constantly collapsing.—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg(1742–99) German Scientist, Critic, Writer

A novel points out that the world consists entirely of exceptions.—Joyce Cary(1888–1957) Irish Novelist, Artist

Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.—William Temple

If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it and you can hardly fail of making him happy. You make him a denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages.—John Herschel(1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.—Mortimer J. Adler(1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator, Author

There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.—Isaac D’Israeli(1766–1848) English Writer, Scholar

One sheds one’s sicknesses in books—repeats and presents again one’s emotions, to be master of them.—D. H. Lawrence(1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.—Jean de La Bruyere

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.—Henry James(1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer

A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can’t expect an apostle to look out.—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg(1742–99) German Scientist, Critic, Writer

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.—Rene Descartes(1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.—Samuel Johnson(1709–84) British Essayist

The newest books are those that never grow old.—Holbrook Jackson(1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher

Beware of the person of one book.—Thomas Aquinas(1225–74) Italian Catholic Priest, Philosopher, Theologian

The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,With loads of learned lumber in his head,With his own tongue still edifies his ears,And always list’ning to himself appears.All books he reads, and all he reads assails.—Alexander Pope(1688–1744) English Poet

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.—Frank Lane(1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson

Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.—John Wesley(1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian

Read an hour every day in your chosen field. This works out to about one book per week, 50 books per year, and will guarantee your success.—Brian Tracy(b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker

The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness.—Holbrook Jackson(1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.—John Milton(1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater

You will, I am sure, agree with me that… if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.—Arthur Conan Doyle(1859–1930) Scottish Writer

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.—Augustine Birrell(1850–1933) English Politician, Barrister, Academic, Author

Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.—Benjamin Franklin(1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat

Readers are less and less seen as mere non-writers, the subhuman “other” or flawed derivative of the author; the lack of a pen is no longer a shameful mark of secondary status but a positively enabling space, just as within every writer can be seen to lurk, as a repressed but contaminating antithesis, a reader.—Terry Eagleton

The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.—Anthony Trollope(1815–82) English Novelist

All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality—the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.—A. C. Benson(1862–1925) English Essayist, Poet, Author

Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves. They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.—Jeremy Collier(1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman

A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.—Samuel Johnson(1709–84) British Essayist

Books to judicious compilers, are useful; to particular arts and professions, they are absolutely necessary; to men of real science, they are tools: but more are tools to them.—Samuel Johnson(1709–84) British Essayist

This habit of reading … is your pass to the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for his creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.—Anthony Trollope(1815–82) English Novelist

The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.—William Dean Howells(1837–1920) American Novelist, Short story Author, Editor

Good literature continually read for pleasure must, let us hope, do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.—A. E. Housman(1859–1936) British Poet, Scholar

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.—Quintilian(c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic

When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.—Desiderius Erasmus(c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar

To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations—such is a pleasure beyond compare.—Yoshida Kenko(1283–1352) Japanese Poet, Essayist

There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.—Nelson Mandela(1918–2013) South African Political leader

When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own.—John Berger(1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist

Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.—John Adams(1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer

An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.—Augustine Birrell(1850–1933) English Politician, Barrister, Academic, Author

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason: they made no such demand upon those who wrote them. Those works, therefore, are the most valuable, that set our thinking faculties in the fullest operation. understand them.—Charles Caleb Colton(1780–1832) English Angelic Priest, Writer, Collector

Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.—Jim Bishop(1907–87) American Journalist, Author

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.—Martin Farquhar Tupper(1810–89) English Poet, Writer

Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.—Steven Spielberg(b.1946) American Film Director, Screenwriter, Film Producer, Businessperson

A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don’t slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices.—Pablo Neruda(1904–73) Chilean Poet, Diplomat, Political leader

Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death hath no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever.—Unknown

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.—Mortimer J. Adler(1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator, Author

When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books You will be reading meanings.—Harold S. Geneen(1910–1997) British-American Businessman

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.—Francis Bacon(1561–1626) English Philosopher

Everything you need for your better future and success has already been written. And guess what? It’s all available. All you have to do is go to the library.—Jim Rohn(1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.—George Gissing(1857–1903) English Novelist

Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life.—Holbrook Jackson(1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher

A person of mature years and ripe development, who is expecting nothing from literature but the corroboration and renewal of past ideas, may find satisfaction in a lucidity so complete as to occasion no imaginative excitement, but young and ambitious students are not content with it. They seek the excitement because they are capable of the growth that it accompanies.—Charles Cooley(1864–1929) American Sociologist

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.(1809–94) American Physician, Essayist

Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. We must not permit anything to stand between us and the book that could change our lives.—Jim Rohn(1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.—Henry David Thoreau(1817–62) American Philosopher

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.—Walt Disney(1901–66) American Entrepreneur

Books worth reading once are worth reading twice; and what is most important of all, the masterpieces of literature are worth reading a thousand times.—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn(1838–1923) British Political leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.—Arthur Schopenhauer(1788–1860) German Philosopher

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.—Harper Lee(1926–2006) American Novelist

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.—Henry Ward Beecher(1813–87) American Protestant Clergyman, Social Reformer, Abolitionist

Thy books should, like thy friends, not many be, yet such wherein men may thy judgment see.—William Wycherley(1640–1715) English Dramatist

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and the afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and places and how the weather was.—Ernest Hemingway(1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer

The most foolish kind of a book is a kind of leaky boat on the sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in anyhow.—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.(1809–94) American Physician, Essayist

If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people like you would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear the professionals decode and read the books aloud for you. This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors and I-Married-a-Midget writers who would not have the patience to learn the secret language.—Robertson Davies(1913–95) Canada Journalist, Playwright, Academic, Critic, Novelist

When I take up a book I have read before I know what to expect; and the satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated, I shake hands with and look the old tried and valued friend in the face, compare notes, and chat the hour away.—William Hazlitt(1778–1830) English Essayist

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.—Gaston Bachelard(1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet

One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.—E. M. Forster(1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist

My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.—Edward Gibbon(1737–94) English Historian, Politician

It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it as the founding of a public library.—Andrew Carnegie(1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist

There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg(1742–99) German Scientist, Critic, Writer

Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.—John Witherspoon(1723–94) American Founding Father, Educator, Clergyman

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.—Anatole France(1844–1924) French Novelist

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.—Albert Einstein(1879–1955) German-born Physicist

The best effect of any book, is that it excites the reader to self-activity.—Thomas Carlyle(1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist

Readers are not sheep, and not every pen tempts them.—Vladimir Nabokov(1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.—Thornton Wilder(1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright

Read, read, search, and refine your appetite; learn to live upon instruction; feast your mind and mortify your flesh. — Read and take your nourishment in all your eyes; shut up your mouth, and chew the cud of understanding.—William Congreve(1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.—E. M. Forster(1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist

That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.—Amos Bronson Alcott(1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher

A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author’s soul.—Aldous Huxley(1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.—Benjamin Franklin(1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat

What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind; the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.—Wendell Phillips(1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator

Man’s mind stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.(1809–94) American Physician, Essayist